About the same down here in Missouri. It was 13 degrees (F) when I drove in to work this morning. My hope is that all of the chiggers that thought spring had arrived will be frozen and will not pester me this summer as I stumble through the woods.

Now this is much more like it! Just the weather for going out for a brisk walk. Feeling the hairs in my nostrils freezing solid with the first breath and any exposed skin giving painful warnings of incipient frostbite. What I don’t understand is the wimpish weather service giving out these wind chill advisories.

Its cold here in central wisconsin too. Yesterday we recieved what has to be the most snow we’ve had all winter. And the temp is down in the single digits; negative with the wind chill. “The cold, it bites the bones”. Wonderful weather. Finally, winter is getting going, two months late.

We’ve got the wind, the cold, and the SNOW here in the SE part of the state. It actually looks like Minnesota in February. The Mississippi River is at last freezing over (about a month and a half late).

My high school earth science teacher had us sing “Minus 40 is minus 40 the whole world around.” Of course this had no connection to reality for us as residents of Houston, Texas, but it did stick with me.

We’ve had plenty of snow since early December. Although it’s been warmer than usual, it hasn’t risen above freezing long enough to do a substantial thaw. I’m always surprised at how bare it is farther east when I drive to Minneapolis.

Alas, I don’t think the students come to class because they love me. I’m teaching at 8AM, they’re hardly awake, but they know they need to learn the stuff or they’ll fail.
It helps that it’s a small campus, too — not far to walk. You can also get to the science building via underground tunnels from the student center.

I am so envious! Here in Northern NJ we were blessed with a huge, wonderful snowfall on Sunday (Mother Nature gave me a superb birthday present), but now the grass is almost totally bare. Cross-country skiing was good for two days, goodish for one, then–phffft!–gone.

Alas, alack.

So, if I were to move with the intent of having a good snowy winter, where should I go? (Canada thinks I’m too old to be a good candidate for immigration.)

Some years ago, I and two associates, all So. Cal. residents, were in Cambridge (England) on a fool’s errand in January. We had no transportation, pretty much walked everywhere.

One vicious morning, with the wind blowing in off the North Sea, dressed in everything we owned, we were walking up the tow path beside the Cam, trying to detect sensation in our fingers and toes, when we met one of our local contacts coming the other way. He was wearing a topcoat, scarf, and no hat. His damn pink Limey cheeks were radiating cheer as he waved and chirped out, “Lovely morning! Bracing, what?”

Winter weather like that is sure fun when you’re warm and well fed. Not so much if you’re hungry and have got to live in it. Feathers and fur are great insulation, but -40 just isn’t fun for anything; they endure it or die. For all it’s problems (and there’s whole bunch) it’s still good to be a human being in the 21st Century.

For all its problems (and there’s whole bunch) it’s still good to be a human being in the 21st Century.

Plenty of people lived in Minnesota and even, dare I say it, Manitoba long before the advent of insulation, modern heating, cars, or Gore-tex. And the climate was even worse for much of that time. As to how they survived this for thousands of years, I couldn’t imagine.

During their Russian campaign, the Mongols launched some of their attacks during the winter. The same winter than defeated the Swedes, French, and Germans helped the Mongols. (Everything is relative: in hardiness, French < Russians < Mongols.)